Keeping California’s Kids In School: Fewer Students Of .

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Keeping California’s Kids in School:Fewer Students of Color Missing School for Minor MisbehaviorBy Daniel J. Losen, Tia E. Martinez and Valerie OkelolaRecently the California Department of Education released new data on school discipline. This report compares thisyear’s data release covering 2012-13 to the data released last year covering 2011-12. We find a reduction in the use ofout-of-school suspension for every racial/ethnic group. Specifically, based on the statewide averages for 2011-2012 and2012-2013, progress was made for every racial/ethnic subgroup toward reducing the rate of out-of-school suspensions(OSS) per 100 students enrolled from the prior year.FIGURE 1: Two-Year Trend in Rates of Out-of-School Suspensions in California3025BlackAm. Ind.20Pac. rniaDepartmentof Education02011 - 20122012 - 2013As the trend lines show, OSS rates for all groups declined. Black students saw the largest decline, a reduction ofnearly 3 suspensions per 100. Over the same time span, White students’ OSS declined by nearly 1 per 100 enrolled.In absolute terms, Black students made the most progress. The gap with Whites narrowed considerably from 2011for Blacks and Latinos but the Native American/White gap did not narrow.PAGE 1

Data source and limitations: The state and district level data used to construct this report and compare years,include data on every district in California collected by the state and made available in flat file format on the state’sDepartment of Education website.1 We have conducted the additional analysis on racial gaps and trends over time.We provide that information for every district in a sortable spreadsheet that accompanies this report. The state hasdiscouraged comparisons with reported data from earlier years because the definitions, collection methods andother inconsistencies make such comparisons unreliable.The reduction in state averages suggest that some progress has been made toward reducing the reliance on out-ofschool suspensions and the racial gap in disciplinary exclusion is narrowing in California. This report only provides asummary of some of the more significant state and district level improvements. The table below shows the districtsthat demonstrated the greatest reductions in out-of-school suspensions (OSS) based on the absolute count for allstudents. The second column shows the change in the rate of out-of-school suspensions per 100 students enrolled.TABLE 1. Districts with largest one-year declines in OSS per 100 1DISTRICTOSS REDUCTION #CHANGE INOSS PER 100Los Angeles Unified-11163-1.66Rialto Unified-3223-11.98Santa Ana Unified-3113-5.46Elk Grove Unified-2388-3.85Riverside Unified-2255-5.35San Juan Unified-2251-4.92Bakersfield City-2050-7.58Fresno Unified**Compton Unified-1565-6.29Long Beach Unified-1500-1.66Oakland Unified-1392-3.00Greenfield Union-1372-15.77Hesperia Unified-1324-5.65Central Unified-1313-9.01West Contra Costa Unified-1243-4.52Moreno Valley Unified-1242-3.14Fontana Unified-1131-2.75Hemet Unified-1026-4.51Visalia Unified-1019-3.89Vallejo City Unified-949-5.92*District data originally submitted to state is no longer available.2PAGE 2

Several districts made very large reductions in the number of OSS and rate per 100 students enrolled in a spancovering just two years. These data may represent a consistent downward trend, although it is too soon to be certain.Districts with widely publicized efforts to address excessive discipline, including Los Angeles, Oakland and VallejoCity do appear to have made significant progress and each appear in the list above.Moreover, of the districts reporting data in both years, approximately 500 districts serving nearly 4.7 million studentsregistered decreases in OSS rates. On the other hand, approximately 245 districts representing 1.2 million studentsregistered an increase in OSS rates. Moreover, even in many of the improving districts, including some of those withthe largest declines highlighted in this report, there are still very high suspension rates and very large racial disparities.3At the district level, this report describes a mixed picture of progress. While several large districts serving highpercentages of poor and minority youth are finding effective ways to reduce exclusionary discipline, other districtsare not recognizing the issue of excessive discipline or are failing to take effective action. We know from research andnews reports on districts in other states that several large school districts that have lowered suspension rates recentlyhave simultaneously made academic gains. Two recent examples are Baltimore City, where decreases in suspensionspreceded improvements in graduation rates in subsequent years,4 and in Denver, Colorado, where steady andconsistent achievement gains coincided with large reductions in suspensions attributed to restorative practices.5The efforts in these progressing California districts reflect a growing understanding among educators andstakeholders that far too many students are being denied educational opportunity because of behavioral issues. Thegroundswell of activities that states and districts are engaging in to reduce the use of suspensions and expulsions iswell documented in the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center report, The School Discipline ConsensusProject Report: Keeping Students in School and out of the Juvenile Justice System, released on June 3. This reportprovides policy and practice recommendations that are field-driven and consensus-based around how to improveconditions for learning for all students, provide targeted interventions for students with behavioral health needs,design effective school-police partnerships, and divert students away from courts. The report reflects consensusamong educators, law enforcement officials, juvenile justice leaders, behavioral health specialists, advocates, policymakers, youth, and families, to keep students engaged in school and out of the juvenile justice system. This Center forCivil Rights Remedies report was released to coincide with the Consensus Project report because we hope to put thepowerful findings and recommendations into the context of the picture of significant signs of progress in California.The positive developments suggest that there are effective policies and practices worth replicating or building uponand that the status quo of high rates and large racial disparities can be rejected. Further research should explore whysome districts improved much more than others.District analysis disaggregated: Not only have some districts made much more progress than others, somehave made large gains in reducing the suspension rates of historically disadvantage subgroups. The following twotables highlight the districts making the largest improvements for Black (Table 2.) and Latino (Table 3.) students. Whilewe recognize these declines, it should be noted that many of the districts with the largest declines started with veryhigh rates and most are still well above the state average. The spreadsheet that accompanies this report enables usersto see both the rates, and the declines in the aggregate and disaggregated by racial/ethnic groups and to generatesimilar lists for each racial/ethnic group for which data were reported by the California Department of Education.PAGE 3

TABLE 2. 10 districts with largest decrease in Black OSS per 100DISTRICTOUT OF SCHOOLSUSPENSIONSPER 100 BLACKSTUDENTS, 1112OUT OF SCHOOLSUSPENSIONSPER 100 BLACKSTUDENTS, 1213DECREASEIN BLACKOSS PER 100Central Unified44.3022.34-21.96Rialto Unified46.7125.01-21.70Bakersfield City62.2741.72-20.55Compton Unified33.8015.88-17.92Vallejo City Unified72.9155.58-17.33Visalia Unified44.7528.33-16.42San Juan Unified53.7139.00-14.71Monterey Peninsula Unified20.497.69-12.79Modesto City Elementary53.0541.21-11.84Madera Unified39.9128.18-11.74Source: California Department of Education.Note: Only districts with overall enrollments of 10,000 or more and black student enrollment of at least 300 were included.TABLE 3. 10 districts with largest decrease in Latino OSS per 100DISTRICTOUT OF SCHOOLSUSPENSIONSPER 100 LATINOSTUDENTS, 1112OUT OF SCHOOLSUSPENSIONSPER 100 LATINOSTUDENTS, 1213DECREASEIN LATINOOSS PER 100Santa Rosa High35.5922.90-12.69Rialto Unified17.167.11-10.05Central Unified16.327.45-8.86Livermore Valley Joint Unified13.176.19-6.98Tracy Joint Unified21.8815.59-6.29Bakersfield City17.7311.67-6.06Alameda Unified13.006.99-6.01Santa Ana Unified13.587.81-5.78La Mesa-Spring Valley11.275.56-5.71Riverside Unified13.407.72-5.67Source: California Department of Education.Note: Only districts with overall enrollments of 10,000 or more and Latino student enrollment of at least 300 were included.PAGE 4

We find that many large districts made strong progress and in particular Central Unified, Bakersfield City and RialtoUnified all indicate significant reductions for both Black and Latino students. Other districts, including Los Angeles,which tops the list (Table 1) for total reductions in the number of OSS, made noteworthy improvements from abaseline that was already lower than the state average. All improving districts’ efforts are worthy of closer analysis.To the extent that progress was due to purposeful efforts and changes to policy and practice, they may presentstrong examples for replication.Disruption and Willful Defiance: Reporting on school discipline in California would be incomplete withoutan analysis of the extent to which students are suspended for the minor category of “Disruption” or “Willful Defiance.”California reports on suspensions for 24 different violations of the state’s code of conduct. The offense “disruptedschool activities or otherwise willfully defied the valid authority” is a catch-all category covering a wide range of lessserious misbehavior (including not paying attention, failing to do homework, talking back). Yet, in 2012-2013 nearly34% of all out-of-school suspensions were for this one category.A review of district data across the state shows that it is also the category where the largest racial disparities areobserved. For example, as depicted in Table 4., a tremendous amount of the Black/White gap in OSS can be attributedto this one subjective category of minor offenses. The first column in Table 4 provides the out-of-school suspensions(OSS) per 100 Black students enrolled for all offenses. The second column subtracts the rate for Whites (not in table) toshow the difference expressed as the Black/White Gap. The third and fourth columns repeat the process of calculatingthe gap but just for the OSS per 100 in the category of Disruption/Willful Defiance. The last column describes how muchof the total Black/White discipline gap can be attributed to the use of OSS in this one category by dividing the fourthcolumn by the second column. Table 5 presents the identical analysis as applied to the Latino/White discipline gap.TABLE 4. Five districts with the largest Black/White discipline gap 2012-2013 10 districtswith largest decrease in Black OSS per 100DISTRICTOSS BLACKRATE, ALLOFFENSESOSS BLACK/WHITEGAP ALLOFFENSESDISRUPTION/WILLFULDEFIANCEBLACK OSSRATEBLACKWHITE GAPDISRUPTION/WILLFULDEFIANCEPERCENTAGEOF GAPATTRIBUTABLETO DISRUPTION/WILLFUL DEFIANCELodi Unified63.0950.2141.4335.6271%Antelope Valley Union High55.2244.7025.8822.2450%West Contra Costa Unified50.7740.3623.3019.3448%Kern Union High57.3138.6127.3119.6251%Vallejo City Unified55.5837.1116.3611.1730%Source: California Department of Education.Note: Only districts with enrollments of 10,000 or more were included.Gaps were rounded to one decimal and percentages to whole numbers.PAGE 5

TABLE 5. Five districts with the largest Latinos/White gap 2012-2013DISTRICTOSS LATINORATE, ALLOFFENSESOSS LATINO/WHITEGAP ALLOFFENSESLATINO OSSRATE FORDISRUPTION/WILLFULDEFIANCELATINO/WHITE GAPDISRUPTION/WILLFULDEFIANCEPERCENTAGEOF GAPATTRIBUTABLETO DISRUPTION/WILLFUL DEFIANCEFremont Union High15.2611.784.093.0826%Santa Rosa High22.9011.509.945.3346%Salinas Union High15.467.986.744.0451%Roseville Joint Union High15.807.946.402.9537%Gilroy Unified14.557.596.844.3758%Source: California Department of Education.Note: Only districts with enrollments of 10,000 or more were included.The purpose of this report is to highlight what is possible and that the status quo is not destiny. Therefore, it is criticallyimportant to note that among the districts highlighted in tables 4 and 5, (all large districts with large racial/ethnicgaps in OSS), many were in the process of addressing the high rates and racial disparities. The data reviewed in thisreport would not reflect the progress made by districts in 2013-2014 to bring their rates and disparities down.However, these sobering statistics demonstrate that despite important progress, many districts still suspend high anddisparate numbers of students out of school for minor infractions of the school code of conduct. Further, it is in the leastserious offense category, one that entails a great deal of subjectivity, that we tend to see the largest racial disparities. Inthe districts with the largest racial/ethnic gaps between Blacks and Whites and Latinos and Whites, the gap in the leastserious and most subjective offense category accounted for between 26% and 71% of the racial/ethnic divide.Several districts have recently eliminated this offense as grounds for suspension. In Los Angeles, for example, theschool board passed a school climate bill of rights that included eliminating this offense category as grounds forsuspension. Moreover, the California state legislature has sought passage of a change to the school code that wouldsubstantially reduce the use of suspensions in this offense category.Despite the progress being made, in too many districts large racial disparities persist, especially in OSS for thecategory of “disruption/willful defiance.” Further, large disparities in other categories are also highly problematic.Generally speaking, the size of the racial disparities in OSS rates remains an issue for many subgroups of studentsand is especially large between Black and White students. Further, although this report does not describe disparitiesby disability status, gender, or English learner status, our forthcoming complete report will reveal similarly troublingdisparities found in many districts for these subgroups as well.The need for changes to policy and practice includes civil rights obligations: Not only shouldhigh-suspending districts pursue changes as a matter of good policy for their students, in some circumstances, civil rightslaw may obligate districts to pursue changes. Specifically, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education put togetherguidance for schools about the civil rights implications of school discipline disparities, which they released on January8, 2014. In this joint DOJ/OCR guidance they outline how school districts are obligated to review their school disciplinepolicies and practices for unnecessary reliance on school exclusion and the possibility that their disciplinary policies andpractices could have an unlawful disparate impact by race. The following is an edited excerpt from that legal guidance: 7PAGE 6

Schools also violate Federal law when they evenhandedly implement facially neutralpolicies and practices that, although not adopted with the intent to discriminate,nonetheless have an unjustified effect of discriminating against students onthe basis of race In determining whether a facially neutral policy has an unlawful disparate impact onthe basis of race, the Departments will engage in the following three-part inquiry 1. Has the discipline policy resulted in an adverse impact on students of a particular race as compared withstudents of other races? an adverse impact may include, but is not limited to, instances where studentsof a particular race, as compared to students of other races, are disproportionately: sanctioned at higherrates; disciplined for specific offensesIf there were an adverse impact, then:2. Is the discipline policy necessary to meet an important educational goal? If the policy is necessary tomeet an important educational goal, then the Departments would ask:3. Are there comparably effective alternative policies or practices that would meet the school’s statededucational goal with less of a burden or adverse impact on the disproportionately affected racial group? Most important is that if the answer is yes to the last question, the enforcement agency would find unlawfuldiscrimination. The purpose of such a finding would be to compel a district to improve its discipline policy andpractice. As the recent California data suggest, many districts are already moving in this direction.Many Californians do not realize that in 2011, LAUSD entered into a resolution agreement with the U.S. Department ofEducation’s Office for Civil Rights on a number of education equity issues including agreement concerning disparitiesin the suspension rates of Black students. 8 Among the terms of the resolution agreement was that, “The Districtshall modify its policies, procedures and practices to eliminate the disproportionality and shall also implement,as appropriate, behavioral intervention programs, supports and other methods to minimize subjectivity in theimposition of disciplinary sanctions.” 9Although there is unquestionably more work to be done, the data from LAUSD show significant reductions in the use ofOSS. Black rates fell from 12.1 to 7.1 OSS per 100 for all offenses; Latino rates fell from 3.1 to 1.7; and White rates fell from2.4 to 1.0. This suggests that the work in Los Angeles contributed to one of the state’s lowest Black/White gaps, of just 6points and a Latino/White gap of seven tenths of one percentage point. The observed reductions suggest that reformefforts were underway even before the implementation of the new student Bill of Rights was adopted. Now that nostudents can be suspended out of school for behavior that falls in the disruptive defiant category, the new district rulesshould eliminate all disparities in this subjective category while further helping reduce the overall disparities.In addition to the signs of progress in LAUSD, prompted in part by civil rights requirements, the recent “Local ControlFunding Formula” (LCFF) requires districts to submit an accountability plan (LCAP) for district-wide improvement,including how it will meet goals for improving student engagement and address concerns about school climate anddiscipline. As a matter of policy, a great deal can be accomplished if the new funds are spent wisely, including onefforts to reduce excessive and disparate suspensions.PAGE 7

Conclusion: The new federal guidance and the LCAP requirements should stimulate districts in California to reviewthe status of their school climate, and the impact of their discipline policy by race/ethnicity, gender and disabilitystatus. Despite the progress sited in this report we believe the data should prompt most districts that they need toreduce disciplinary exclusion especially as it pertains to students of color. Therefore we conclude with the followingthree recommendations for action at the district level that could be written into the LCAP to support the goals ofimproving student behavior and engagement and reducing or eliminating the disparate impact from less effectivediscipline policies or practices.1. Ensure strong discipline data public reporting and use and set clear goals for thereduction in overall levels and disparities in the use of exclusionary discipline: Districtsshould consider publicly reporting suspensions down to the school level disaggregated by race, gender, disabilitystatus and other subgroups and setting clear and aggressive goals for reducing reliance on exclusionary discipline.Other local measures should also be reported, including surveys of pupils, parents, and teachers on the senseof safety and school connectedness. These data can be analyzed side by side with other measures of studentengagement and academic achievement to evaluate efforts to improve the school climate such at thosedescribed below. Districts should invest in personnel, training and software to support effective use of thedata relevant to these state priority areas.2. E liminate disruption/willful defiance as grounds for disciplinary removal andinvolve community groups in revising the code of conduct to reflect a positive andconstructive framework: There are several examples of schools and districts that have done so successfully.Districts should engage members of the school community in these efforts while also taking into considerationsuccessful efforts in other districts including the School Climate Bill of Rights adopted by LAUSD.3. Invest in alternatives to disciplinary exclusion and provide appropriate training ofteachers and leaders to ensure implementation integrity: District-wide efforts are varied andinclude teacher training programs, systemic adoption of a framework of positive behavioral interventions and supports, restorative practices and social and emotional learning approaches that would help correct behaviorand reduce the thousands of hours of lost instruction due to disciplinary exclusion.These remedies are consistent with the recommendations from the new School Discipline Consensus Report releasedon June 3rd by the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Specifically, The consensus recommendations represent more than 100 expert advisors over the past three years who worked to identify evidence-based recommendationsto change the system of discipline in public schools to keep more kids in the classroom and out of the juvenile justicesystem. Moreover, these recommendations also reflect the recommendations from a series of briefing papers releasedby the Discipline Disparities Research Collaborative in March, 2014. Disparities in Discipline Research Collaborativeresearch-based briefing papers on addressing discipline disparities: http://www.indiana.edu/ atlantic/briefing-papers/Several of the remedies are featured in a edited book, Closing the School Discipline Gap: Research to Policy, slated forpublication later this year by Teachers College Press.Real people power, funding, and professional development andspecific research-based solutions to tackle the issues identified.See the following resources: www.schooldisciplinedata.orgPAGE 8

APPENDIXFor all analyses we used the public use flat file posted by CDE at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/sd/filesesd.asp. Thisfile included all data on out of school suspensions disaggregated by race/ethnicity and type of offense. CDE censoredany cells which that included less than 10 suspensions to protect students’ privacy by replacing the true value withan asterisk. In order to estimate rates across race/ethnic categories, we recoded all censored cells by replacing theseasterisks with “1’s” – the lowest value possible. This results in a slight undercount of the total number of suspensionswhen compared to the total numbers available on the CDE website. Hence, all estimates are conservative.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis report was made possible with support from The California Endowment.Data retrieved on 4/30/2014 from http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/sd/filesesd.asp. For more details on methods see theAppendix.2 Data on Victor Valley demonstrating a near elimination of all out of school suspensions from the prior year wasremoved because it conflicts with data on the district’s website regarding the annual evaluation of their Local Educational Agency Plan stating on page 2 that suspensions were reduced by 29% from 2011-12 to 2012-13. .pdf. We believe that there was likely a clerical error, and as a matter of policy we remove data from our reports until such large differences in publicly reported can be reconciled.3 A comprehensive report we are preparing for release this year will cover a wider range of discipline, both in-schooland out-of-school suspensions, more details on offense categories and disaggregate data by race, poverty, disability status, English learner status, gender, and include some analysis down to the school level. Further, a spreadsheetcontaining combined in and out-of-school suspension rates posted to www.schooldisciplinedata.org has now beenreplaced with the spreadsheet for this report which only covers out-of-school suspensions.4 Alonso, A. (2013). School discipline and student achievement. Baltimore city: Retrieved from NYS%20Summit-PPTs%20for%20Web/P3-Alonso.pdf5 Gonzalez, T. (in press). Socializing schools: Addressing racial disparities in discipline through restorative justice. In D.J.Losen (Ed.), Closing the School Discipline Gap. Columbia, NY: Teachers College Press. (Available from Daniel Losenupon request).6 The SSDI reflects a groundswell of interest and activity by states and school districts across the nation to improveschool climate and the conditions for learning without relying on frequent exclusion from school to accomplish thesegoals. An overview of the SSDI can be found here: ne/index.html7 .pdf8 Agreement to Resolve, Between the Los Angeles Unified School District and the U.S. Department of Education, Officefor Civil Rights October 11, 2011, available online at estigations/09105001-b2.pdf9 Id at p. 310 Specifically, these recommendations reflect very similar yet more detailed recommendations found in the followingsections of the School Discipline Consensus Report: Our recommendations on data collection and use are reflectedin the Conditions for Learning, Policy Statement I, recommendation 1 and 2 (p. 23) as well as Data Collection PolicyRecommendations 1 and 2 (p. 350; 357, 360, 363) and the Conclusion at p. 367: Our recommendation to eliminatesuspensions for the minor offense of Disruption/Willful defiance as part of revising the code of conduct with communityinput is reflected partially in Conditions for Learning, Policy Statement III (p. 24) and recommendations 1 and 3 (startingat p. 71). The recommendation to invest in alternatives to exclusionary discipline and provide support and training forimplementation is reflected in the Conditions for Learning chapter. In that chapter, Policy Statement II (p. 23) directlydiscusses school improvement plans like LCAP; Policy Statement IV (p. 25) calls for training of teachers and leaders.1 PAGE 9

*District data originally submitted to state is no longer available.2 Los Angeles Unified -11163 -1.66 Rialto Unified -11.98 -3223 Santa Ana Unified -3113 -5.46 Elk Grove Unified -2388 -3.85 Riverside Unified

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